More and more entities are establishing their presence in the Internet as a way of growing their business and lowering costs. With the proliferation of personal computers and the popularity of the Internet, companies have decided to set up websites where customers can visit the stores, browse through the products and hopefully make a purchase.
Companies that sell to other companies (“business-to-business”) are following the examples set by earlier websites that sell to consumers. With the convenience and ease of ordering supplies from a desktop computer, including the convenience of browsing through or searching an electronic catalog, sales to other businesses through the Internet are increasing.
To make the experience of purchasing online as familiar as possible with one purchasing in a brick-and-mortar store, a shopping cart model has been developed. In this model, items selected by the purchaser are added to a shopping cart. As the customer continues to shop, however, he is not always aware of how many items are in his cart, unless he clicks the icon for the shopping cart, or goes to the check-out stage of the system, at which time the contents of the shopping cart would be displayed. If the customer decides to remove items from the shopping cart, he can only do so when the contents are visible.
The shopping cart model is also not suitable for repeatedly purchasing the same items. Typically, no provision is provided in the system where the customer can simply enter a stock number and proceed to the check-out stage. The customer would have to browse through the website to find the product he wants and only then can he add it to the shopping cart. As in a brick-and-mortar store, the layout is designed to get the customer through most of the aisles with the expectation that he would purchase more items than he actually needs. The same would be true for an online store where browsing is encouraged. In a business-to-business context, this model would be time consuming.
The shopping cart model is also not suitable for the incorporation of a tiered pricing system. The present invention enables the customer to take advantage of lower per item tiered pricing as the customer meets certain pricing tier thresholds as more items are added to the worksheet.
The present invention is directed at making the selling of products and configuration of products to other businesses more convenient than by using a shopping cart model on-line or by ordering over the telephone or by faxing a purchase order.
The present invention is an Internet-based system that gives the customer the knowledge, configuration, delivery and control tools to manage product procurement. This system gives the customers the online knowledge tools needed to make purchasing decisions, configure complete solutions to their procurement needs, eliminate inventory, achieve on-time product delivery and low-cost procurement operation. The system begins with the ability to select and evaluate possible choices via product searches, then continues with the “Worksheets”. “Worksheets” allow customers to configure solutions to their purchasing needs. The worksheet process leads the customer from order configuration to confirming product price and inventory availability. Once product price and availability are confirmed, the system then provides the customer with the opportunity to reserve the product on the worksheet for a specified time period or to direct delivery of product by converting the worksheet into an order. Finally, the present invention gives customers control in many forms, including the ability to access their order history and track deliveries. Control is also provided in the form of templates, which allow customers to preselect which products their employees are authorized to purchase.
Although the present invention was developed primarily for selling to other businesses, it should be understood that the invention would be equally applicable to selling to consumers.